1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a hand holdable pump spray apparatus and more particularly to a hand holdable pump spray which is reliable, easy to use, safe and inexpensive.
2. Description of the Related Art
Non-aerosol pump spraying devices have been developed primarily to eliminate the use of propellants which have a detrimental effect on the environment and to eliminate the use of pressurized containers which pose a safety hazard. Pressurized containers may explode and cause injury, and when the containers have ingredients such as insecticide, weed and grass killer and fertilizer, there may be undesirable environmental affects. Examples of non-aerosol pump spray apparatus may be seen by reference to U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,938,116; 5,918,782; 5,860,574; 5,816,447; 5,810,211 and 4,174,055.
A drawback to all of such non-aerosol pump apparatus is that the pump device is located in the container having the liquid to be pumped. There is then a flexible tube connecting the container to a hand holdable spray device or xe2x80x9cwandxe2x80x9d. Typically, the container is sold as a disposable unit to be discarded when there is no more liquid to be pumped. This results in a relatively high cost to both the manufacturer and the consumer because the pump mechanism, located within the container, is also discarded along with the container. Another problem of pump-in-container designs is that the hand held wand must be set down or held in an awkward position when the pump is to be operated because two hands are necessary to manipulate the pump. For example, when it comes time to operate the spraying device, the pump must be activated to pressurize at least part of the system. Usually this means there is a need to pull upwardly on a handle attached to a piston located in the container. While this is done with one hand, the other hand must hold the container xe2x80x9cdownxe2x80x9d to counteract the upward pull on the handle. Hence, it is difficult to also hold the wand at the same time.
There are also safety issues made especially more relevant because of the nature of the liquid being sprayed. First, there is a need to have a sealed container when it is shipped from the factory and again when it is stored by a consumer. Further, there may also be a safety problem regarding pressurized liquid contained in the flow path from the container to the spray device.
The numerous prior attempts to improve upon non-aerosol pump spray devices have yet to produce an optimal system.
The difficulties encountered by the previous devices have been overcome by the present invention. What is described here is a hand holdable pump spray apparatus comprising a generally tubular hand holdable housing having first and second end portions spaced apart from a container of liquid to be sprayed, a piston movable in the housing, a handle connected to the piston adapted to be gripped by a user to move the piston toward one end of the housing, a spring located in the housing between the piston and the end of the housing to bias the piston toward the other end of the housing, a chamber formed in the housing between the piston and the other end of the housing, a first valve positioned between the container and the chamber, a nozzle, another valve located between the nozzle and the first valve, and an actuator for opening the second valve whereby liquid in the chamber may be ejected through the nozzle.
There are a number of advantages, features and objects achieved with the present apparatus not available in prior devices. For example, one advantage is that the present invention provides a non-aerosol hand holdable pump spray apparatus having the pump contained in the wand, thereby eliminating prior potential safety hazards relative to pressurized liquid in the flow path. Another advantage of the present invention is that it enables elimination of various previously required components. Yet another advantage of the present invention is that the pump spray wand and the container combination is relatively inexpensive and that the container is disposable after use but the pump mechanism in the wand is separate and may be reused. Still another feature of the present invention is to provide a simple container valve whose position is visually apparent to ensure that the container is sealed when not in use or when it is transported, thereby preventing inadvertent leakage of possibly environmentally hazardous liquids. A further feature of the present invention is to enable the container to be emptied more completely than can be accomplished by prior pump spray devices. Yet another object of the present invention is that the wand is reliable, easy to use, inexpensive and safe.
A more complete understanding of the present invention and other advantages, objects and features thereof will be gained from a consideration of the following preferred embodiments read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings provided herein.